What would it mean to become a super ally to this super alloy?

You may associate tungsten with the light bulb, and when it comes to circular value chains, tungsten presents an illuminating example. 

The tungsten supply chain is already circular. It operates as a large closed-loop system, where 95% of tungsten carbide is captured for recycling in industrial settings. 

Pretty switched on, right? 

We discovered the recycling loop is not always allowing tungsten to shine at its highest value.

The primary use of tungsten is within cemented carbides, making it the second-hardest material in the world, after diamonds. And while tungsten is not quite a girl’s best friend, it can melt hearts! Tungsten has the highest fusion point of any other metal and as such, plays an essential role in industries like steel, which rely on materials that can withstand extreme stress, heat, and wear.

Tungsten plays an undeniable role in our future economy. But with global demand for tungsten predicted to soon outstrip supply, even the most resilient metal needs to be fully valued to contribute to a resilient economy. 

Coreo conducted a deep dive into tungsten carbide product circularity and found significant opportunity in life extension, refurbishment, and cleaner recycling. The work was conducted in collaboration with Queensland’s Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Manufacturing, and Regional and Rural Development (DNRMMRRD) and the Resources Centre of Excellence (RCOE). 

What goes around comes around, profitably!

The 58 mines in the Bowen Basin are in the same place, digging up the same stuff, using the same tools, generating the same materials and facing the same challenges… Yet despite these commonalities, each mine manages its by-products in isolation. This fragmented approach leads to duplication, underinvestment in recovery infrastructure, and missed opportunities to realise the economic and environmental gains that come from working together.

This report presents an alternative vision for regional collaboration: a Multi Mine Circular Resource Recovery Facility designed to serve as a shared circular recovery hub for mines across Queensland’s Bowen Basin. By aggregating priority material streams and applying high value circular solutions, the facility can unlock significant environmental, social, and economic value, while transforming how the region thinks about mining inputs and waste.

Mining powers economies, but the materials that power mining – think timber pallets, bulk bags, tyres, scrap metal, cardboard and more – are treated as expendable. Once used, they are discarded, stockpiled, or buried, creating unnecessary environmental harm, lost economic value, and mounting logistical burdens. 

Grounded in rigorous analysis by Coreo and the University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute, this report identifies high-volume waste streams, assesses their current impact, and proposes tailored recovery solutions for each. From vermicomposting food waste to remanufacturing timber pallets, from devulcanising tyres into new industrial materials to recovering steel and polymer from complex goods, the report maps pathways to scale circularity across the sector.

This is more than a waste management strategy. It’s a systems-level prospectus for smarter mining, one where waste is a resource, value is circular, and collaboration is core.

Let’s talk about the scale of the tail.

Today, Queensland produces approximately 137 million tonnes of saleable metallurgical coal each year. Based on typical plant yields of ~70%, this equates to around 196 million tonnes of ROM coal processed annually. From this, an estimated 11.8 to 23.5 million tonnes of dry tailings are generated. That’s the equivalent of 12,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools every year!

The range reflects variation across mine sites in processing efficiency, coal quality, and tailings recovery methods, but even at the lower end, the scale is enormous.

Across more than 58 active mines, operators are swimming freestyle on these tailings, with no common, collaborative approach for capturing the value of precious metals left behind. In fact almost no data existed previously – what’s in them, what’s of value, how we might put these resources to good use.

What if we reimagined the Bowen Basin not as a collection of individual mines, but as an integrated system — one capable of circulating resources, retaining value, and regenerating opportunity?

Coreo, in partnership with the Resources Centre of Excellence and the Queensland Government, supported by the analytical capability of the University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute, has mapped the largest consolidated data set yet.

Through the collaboration and willingness of mine operators to share physical samples and operational data, we now have, for the first time, a clear snapshot of what lies within.

In a circular economy, tailings are not waste — they are misclassified resources, waiting to be reimagined.

Download the report and explore how we can unlock the full value of the full volume, together.